Video Spotlight: Two Years on Testosterone

“Transitioning is a very physical juorney,” says Alex Bertie at the start of his new video, two years after starting testosterone.

Over the course of the video, Alex reveals some of the most important and surprising physical changes he’s experienced as he medically transitions to affirm his identity as a trans man.

Although all the changes have helped Alex feel less dysphoric about his body, the most prominent source of newfound confidence was his voice dropping. “At one point, I was a 21-year-old man in higher education with a voice that sounded like a 12-year-old boy!” he recalls. “It was just distressing and embarrassing!”

The voice drop, he says, was a gradual process: it started after three months of testosterone, and the process was similar to a cisgender male undergoing puberty. “It was very gradual and there was a stage where my voice was very squeaky and would break a lot,” Alex recalls. After six months, he adds, “it evened out and I could talk fine. It’s brilliant, it’s beautiful!”

Alex says the next most notable changes were the squaring of his face shape, and the growth of facial hair. “My face shape has changed so much,” he says, “and you can really tell by looking the at pictures side-by-side.” He notes how his squarer jawline has contributed to a more masculine look.

“Facial hair was super desirable for me, I really wanted it,” he continues. Facial hair is not something all trans men can have, but for Alex, it started growing from about three months, starting as a prickly “peach fuzz” on his face and developing to the fuller beard and sideburns he has today.

Something else which not all trans men experience is and end to their periods. Alex had found his periods extremely distressing – “it was a monthly reminder I was born in the wrong gender” – but fortunately for him, they stopped soon after he started taking testosterone.

Another physical change Alex discusses is clitoral growth, sometimes referred to as a “T-dick” – something few trans men speak openly about. “I could honestly tell it was happening after just two weeks,” he recalls, “I remember walking to the bus stop after college one day and thinking, damn, I feel like there’s something in my pants!

“It’s a shame not a lot of guys talk about this,” Alex says in the video, “because for me, it has really helped alleviate bottom dysphoria to the point I’m not really considering bottom surgery right now.”

After all these physical changes and others – like becoming stronger, and gaining muscle – Alex reveals that he now loves his body and says, “I barely feel dysphoric anymore”. We loved seeing his transformation under testosterone and applaud him for not only becoming a source of inspiration for trans men but for spreading awareness to the wider community too.

Alex leaves his audience with one last piece of advice: “Try to not let transition rule your life. Yes, it is important and you should be proud of it, but you are my more than your trans status.”

Settings

Like most websites, TenEighty uses functional cookies and external scripts. You can choose whether or not to opt into those here. If you want to change your settings in the future, you can return to this menu via teneightymagazine.com/privacy

NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to collect data about (among other things) the pages you view, the device you use to access the site, roughly where you are visiting from, and, if you didn’t come to us directly, the website that linked you to us or the search terms you used to find us. This helps us learn a bit about who our readers are, what TenEighty content they are interested in, and how they consume it. Knowing how many people are using the site at any given moment also lets us identify and deal with traffic spikes, helping us keep the site online. We have chosen to use the IP Anonymization option so that your IP address and specific location are never recorded. The data collected by Google Analytics is retained indefinitely, but none of it is personally identifiable, and it is not made available to any third parties.

You can find out more about this (and return to this menu if you want to change your settings) via teneightymagazine.com/privacy

Google AdSense

We use Google AdSense to generate revenue from visits to our website. Google will display ads that it believes are relevant to you based on your browsing history, and we earn a small amount of money from your interactions with them.

You can find out more about this (and return to this menu if you want to change your settings) via teneightymagazine.com/privacy